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Rolex 24, racing iron man Geroge Waltman dies

George Waltman, seated, in car, completed the 1968 24 Hours at Daytona without a co-driver or even a crew.

His passing barely caused a murmur at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, but the Jan. 7 death of George S. Waltman of Kingston, N.Y., should not be overlooked.

In 1968, Waltman completed the 24 Hours of Daytona by himself -- no co-drivers, no pit crew. His Aztec Racing Morgan Plus 4 finished 30th, 335 laps behind the winner. During mandatory rest periods, bathroom breaks and meals, be would park his Morgan in the pits and place an “Out To Lunch” sign on the seat. To get additional seat time, he drove his Morgan to and from Daytona, a 2,000-mile round trip.

It was not the first endurance solo for Waltman. In 1962 and 1963, Waltman drove the 12 Hours of Sebring by himself. “Waltman is a 32-year-old Triumph dealer from New York City, and needless to say, he uses his own product,” said a story in the March 25, 1963 edition of the long-defunct Miami News. “Oh, how he uses it.”

Waltman's first drive at Sebring went virtually unnoticed, and his second one almost did, too, until Fred Kingsbury, publicity director for the race, began pointing reporters his way. “Now, there's an endurable man,” Kingsbury said. Especially since, as he did at Daytona, he drove his car to and from the track from his home in New York.

Waltman's obituary said that as a teenager, “he succeeded in acquiring his pilot's license at Floyd Bennet Field in Jamaica, N.Y. He then enlisted in the Army Air Corp. He served in the Pacific Theater during WWII, with the 73rd Bomber's Wing. George was later employed by British Air and then moved on to his real career passion, the auto industry. George not only worked as a service engineer for Jaguar-British Leyland, he also dabbled in auto racing in the Bahamas, Sebring, Daytona, Bridgehamton, Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. After quasi-retirement, George maintained Scuderia Auto Sport in Great Neck, N.Y. and then relocated the shop to Honesdale, Pennsylvania."